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Shaman tactics
=General Tactics= Weapon Choice Shaman can use a shield, 1 and 2-handed weapons, but cannot dual-wield. In practice, many shaman carry a 1H weapon, 2H weapon and a shield and switch between the 2H-weapon and the shield/1H-weapon depending on the situation. * Against melee opponents use the 1H/Shield. As you will have less armour and/or DPS than your opponent, you will want to try kite them as much as possible while using your spells for damage. * Against casters, use the 2H weapon. Spells ignore armour when determining damage so the shield provides little value. Your goal is to kill them quickly using both weapon damage and spells. * When healing: the weapon's attributes should determine which configuration you choose as you will most likely not be engaged in combat as a healer. For example, if your staff has a +int buff on it, then you would select that weapon so as to increase your mana pool. Combat Whatever weapon choice you make, make sure you have a weapon buff on at all times. If you are soloing, always keep your Lightning Shield active, and be prepared to reactivate it in the middle of combat, possibly repeatedly. If you are in a group and are playing a support/healing role, you may want to be careful about activating Lightning Shield, since it will tend to make it harder to pull aggro from you. The standard pull technique for a shaman is Lightning Bolt, followed by a Flame Shock. Since Shocks are instant, this in effect damages the mob two times before it has time to react. Lightning Bolt is the most mana efficient damage spell, Flame Shock the most mana efficient shock. After this initial burst damage, single non-elite mobs should not require further spell casting. It is a good idea to keep lower-powered versions of Earth Shock and Frost Shock in reserve, to interrupt casters and to slow runners, should the neccessity arise. For Shamans prior to level 30, it is a good idea to always have a Stoneskin Totem up. After that, Stoneskin is only useful if you're fighting many small mobs, against single targets Strength of Earth Totem is bettter later on. If you expect fights to take longer than 30 seconds, it is a good idea to place all four totems before the pull. Which totems to place is largely situational. For example, the Searing Totem will crank up your damage curve, but in close quarters may attack mobs you were not quite ready to engage. Totems You need to undertake certain quests to gain your totems; however, you need not go out of your way to do these quests with all possible haste. The level at which you are available for these quests is far enough below the level when you gain the spells that require the totem that you have some leeway. You should do them at earliest opportunity, but find quests in the same area you are going so you can maximize that (often sizable) travel time these quests require. Using your totem spells to maximum advantage is more art than science. Since you can only use one of each element at a time, which one you select will depend on the situation you are in. Talents Selecting Shaman Talents efficiently is a bit more subtle than with some of the other classes. Some of this selection goes hand in hand with your weapon selection (mentioned above). For example, the Thundering Strikes talent lends itself to a fast weapon style while two-handed styles will almost definitely want the Two-Handed Axes and Maces talent. Another consideration is how (or if) you want to specialize in, say, healing instead of elemental combat. Good talent builders are available at the WoW Vault and ThottBot, each with comments on various strategies for talent use. Key Spells As with all classes, some of the shaman's spells are more useful than others. Some have uses that are not immediately obvious. * Earth Shock may do the most damage per cast, but it's extremely mana-inefficient. The most mana-efficient spell is Lightning Shield, and then Lightning Bolt and Flame Shock. Chain Lightning is also very efficient, but only against 3 targets. See the Shaman Spell Damage chart for more details. * Earth Shock is not as useful for direct damage as Flame Shock and Frost Shock, but it disrupts casting. Against casters, or in PvP, it can be extremely useful. * The DoT of a Flame Shock provides a cheap way to bump the shaman's damage curve. * Ghost Wolf has been called the best ability in the game by some and aids escaping significantly, particularly with the Improved Ghost Wolf talent or Nature's Swiftness (which makes it instant-cast). The PvP Honour system boots give an additional 15% points speed boost, and Ghost Wolf profits from the possible speed enchant on boots. * The Stoneclaw Totem can be used when being chased or to escape several opponents. It is fairly easy to generate more aggro than the totem, though, so isn't quite as useful as it sounds. * While a number of spells are available to slow opponents (e.g. Earthbind Totem, Frost Shock, Frostbrand Weapon), Shaman have none that completely root an opponent. * The Lesser Healing Wave spells can be cast up to twice as fast, generate less threat, and are slightly less mana efficient, than the Healing Wave spell the shaman will know at the same time, but don't heal as much damage. Generally you'll have one of each at your fingertips all of the time. * Generous casting of the Windfury Totem will make the Warriors in your group love you, since it increases their attack rate and therefore their rate of rage buildup. * Flametongue, strength of earth and Grace of Air totems are an even better (but more expensive) combo, cause it will raise their attackpower (120 at lvl 60), shield blocks, critical chance (2.5% at lvl 60), armour and damage output significantly. Gear Gear largely depends on playstyle. Elemental Combat and Restoration specs will likely favour int and spirit gear. Meanwhile, Enhancement specs will favour strength and agility, for hard hits, crits, and armour. When playing as the tank, stamina gear can be a great help. Good stamina gear and high level Power Word: Fortitude can give a level 40 shaman over 4000 health, and high armour to keep that health up. =PvE Tactics= Solo PvE Tactics When soloing, totems that affect your group will, naturally, not be as cost-effective. Often, you will want to reserve mana for Earth Shocks, so might not drop totems as often. You will almost always be more than a match for a single mob of equal, or even slightly higher, level. If you find yourself fighting more than one mob, a Stoneclaw Totem can provide the time you need to finish off one before the other destroys the totem. When fighting multiple opponents, it will be worth throwing in some extra damage spells. Nature's Swiftness comes in handy if you find yourself hurting while in these situations. Group PvE Tactics The Shaman can play many roles in a group, including melee, caster, and support. He is not as strong as a specialist at any of these, but he can quickly shift gears if needed. Some general notes: * Stoneskin Totem is always useful, though the usefulness diminishes at higher (especially elite) levels (27 damage reduction before armour reduction is not that useful on 400+ damage hits). The more people in your group, the more it helps. * Strength of Earth Totem is helpful to class mates that are strength based, like a Warrior. * Disrupting enemy casters with Earth Shock helps deal with healers and ranged casters * Windfury Totem dramatically increases the DPS and rage buildup of your frontline fighters. * Fire totems consume large amounts of mana, and should be used sparingly, especially if playing as the healer. * Quick casts of Cure Disease and Cure Poison can cancel enemy DoT attacks (You can also use Poison Cleansing Totem and Disease Cleansing Totem for large groups or repeated poisoning/diseasing.) * Frost Shock and Earthbind Totem can slow down enemy adds or prevent fleeing mobs from gathering reinforcements Sadly, Healing Stream Totem and Mana Spring Totem Level 1 are really not all that useful. The amount of damage or mana provided by these totems is so much lower than what is being spent that you're almost always better off saving the mana to get the combat over quicker. However, Mana Spring Totem Levels 2 and above produce more mana then are spent on them. This makes them slightly more efiicient to use. This is good when in a caster heavy party (Mage, Priest, Druid, Shaman) in battle, and also afterwards in order to reduce downtime for mana regeneration. =PvP Tactics= Solo PvP Tactics One good trick involves some quick mouse work. When trying to escape an opponent, autorun away from them. Then, jump, quickly rotate around in the air, Frost Shock, and rotate back before you land. This allows you to snare your opponent with no loss in forward momentum. Group PvP Tactics I've had a little experience in grp pvp (TM pre-BG, WS, AV), currently carry senior sgt rank, have been as high as 1st sgt and rank 74 on my server (khadgar). here's what i think a sham's role is in pvp: 1. kill things 2. heal if you can, but don't disregard rule #1. shamans are great against cloth or leather wearers (casters, priests, rogues, druids) and we should chop them up as quickly as possible. Against pallies or warriors, a shaman should step back, look for someone to heal, nuke, debuff, check your health, then get back to choppin. My char is specced enh/restoration, but the theory is the same whatever your abilities. We are DPS plus some healing, so go PS that D. General group pvp rule; use 1H and shield. Too many melee classes and hunters out there, and the need to have your weapon buffed prevents in practice that we choose weapons for every new opponent. Raid PvP Tactics Battlegrounds This article is a stub. You can help expand it (http://www.wowwiki.com/index.php?title=Template:Stub&action=edit) by clicking the Edit tab at the top of the page. In Battlegrounds Shaman can do alot. If your group stays close to each other, Totems will rock. Mostly you will be spending your time beating face with whatever weapon you have. However you might want to keep some mana so that If someone is getting gangbanged by some Alliance scum you got their back. Overall Shaman can be really helpful everywhere you want to be. Warsong Gulch: I always found myself being the flag runner, but Druids should be doing that. You can support the runner by dropping Earthbind totems and healing. Have some fun though, you are a shaman, go beat some face. Your anti-caster abilities (especially purge and earthshock) are very fine to kill the priests, which are a great threat in Warsong. Arathi Basin: Same concept Beat Names, Take Face, oh and get those resources, yeah resources. Always drop tremor totem when close to a flag - helps against rogue stuns. Same for many people fighting in one place - it simply helps. Alterac Valley: Only Elemental/Resto shamans have a fine place here. It's difficult to excel with different specs simply because this is a fine place for ranged combat. But I found one interesting trick for every shaman - the notorious archers have huge range and decent dps - they need to be killed asap. Well, shamans can kill them at their maximum range. Just drop the totem to protect you partially against ranged attacks, use your shield, activate lightning shield and refresh it - and heal yourself. Archers have something like 4000 hp and will die after a while due to the lightning shield's effect. Therefore, a shammy (and in theory troll priests and anyone with the druid's thorns) can kill archers at a huge distance minutes before they'd otherwise be engaged. A standard tactic for shamans wih NS is to use it for a chain lightning. That's nice, but helps little to increase the practical dps. Shamans are most useful tfor dispelling the enemy. Priests have little time and mana to do that, so dispell cloth-wearer that you can see. Especially mages and priests with visible shields. --Fox2005 10:03, 20 Sep 2005 (EDT) =Working with Other Classes= Things Shamans want Non-Shamans to know Shamans and groups It seems that often Shamans are thought of as nothing but Priests with shocks, which isn't true. We straddle the border between 3 worlds: we're good (but not great) damage-dealers, we're good (but not great) damage-takers, and we're good (but not great) healers, with those abilities becoming great depending on which talents we choose. A shaman who specializes in Enhancement effectively becomes a secondary tank. So don't be surprised to find us up with the warriors, at least at the start of the battle. Elemental and/or Enhancement shamans typically come in guns blazing at the beginning of a fight (dropping totems as needed), then gradually fall back to a healing position to keep everyone else alive. Warriors & Rogues will always be at the front kicking ass, Mages and Priests will always be in the back throwing out spells and heals, but a shaman will be where he's needed most. Don't expect us to hang around in the back waiting for you to bleed. Not only is that boring for shamans, but it's also a waste of a slot in your group. If you want a priest, get a priest. Things Non-Shamans want Shamans to know Rogues use poisons, which are overridden by your windfury totems. Most rogues prefer an agility totem anyway, so don't use windfury when there is a rogue in your party. Warriors want to have all aggro. Getting hit is good for their rage and they have the best armour anyway. Don't use rockbiter weapon and/or earthshock when fighting side by side with a warrior. Use windfury with twohanded weapons and flameshock instead. =How to Kill A...= Rogue Rogues do very high melee damange. Their goal is to sneak up on you, kill you quickly, and disappear. While they cannot heal, they have various techniques for avoiding damage and/or healing during a fight: Evasion, Gouge/Blind and Bandage, stuns (Cheap Shot/Kidney Shot). There are two basic types of rogues, stun-lock and ambush. * A Stun-Lock rogue will try to keep you stunned for the entire fight. While they cannot actually acheive a perfect stun-lock, they can come very close. Your job is to wait for the gap in the stun and then break the stun-lock sequence. This is either when they miss on a stun move (Blind, Gouge, Cheap Shot) or between stuns (at end of Gouge before the following Blind for instance). * An Ambush rogue will start with Ambush, Sinister Strike, Gouge then Eviscerate. You will be only be stunned during the Gouge. Stealth Rogues can Stealth while not in combat and only on a 10-5 second cooldown. During combat they can Vanish, but on a 5 minute cooldown timer. A rogue trained in Preparation can Vanish twice in 10 minutes. * Flame Shock will keep the rogue from stealthing. However, the DOT duration is 12 seconds and the rogue's Blind is 10 seconds. If timed right, the rogue can wait until the DOT timer is 8 seconds, Blind, wait for the DOT to fade then stealth. * Magma Totem is very mana expensive, has a very short duration (8 secs) and only an 8 yard radius, but will unstealth a rogue within it's radius on each pulse (2 seconds). * Earthbind Totem has been rumored to unstealth a rogue on the first pulse. I have tested (patch 1.8) and this is true. General tips * Use 1H weapon and shield to reduce the damage taken. ** Nature's Swiftness + Healing Wave may be the first thing to do as you will most likely be at half life or less. * Use Lightning Shield to do damage even while you are stunned * Use Tremor Totem to bring you or your mates out of Sap * Use Cure Poison. Rogues can have slow or DOT poisons on both blades. * If you see an unstealth rogue, use Lightning Bolt, Flame Shock, Earthbind Totem to kite the rogue. Be sure to keep him from stealthing and you should win with no problems. * Get and use the Grunt trinket to break out of stun Warrior * Use 1H weapon and shield. If the server isn't mature, fire resistances are usually low. This means that flametongue weapon is a useful weapon buff since the added fire damage ignores the armor rating of the warrior. * Don't melee a warrior until you have to. * Use insignia, earthbind totem and next frostshock to get away from a warrior who charged you. Since patch 1.8, grounding totem does not absorb the stun effect of charge anymore. * Try to get them down to half health before you attempt to start melee combat. * Use Frost shock for the damage and to kite them from you. Make sure you dont go to far or they will intercept you. * If you start losing the melee battle, frost shock them until you have the room required for a few Lesser Healing Wave spells. * If you have Nature's Swiftness, use it! * Good usage of your mana pool is the most important thing. Priest * Use 2H weapon. * If you try to fight a Priest, they will probably use their Psychic Scream spell to scare you away. So, try to drop a Tremor Totem at just the right moment to keep you in control of the situation. * The battle basically comes down to a healing match. Do as much melee damage as you can, and whenever you see them channeling a spell, Earth Shock them to interrupt. You always want to have a Rank 1 Earth Shock set up in addition to your highest rank if you get low on mana, or don't want to waste mana. * Purge! A lot of priests will raise a Power Word: Shield and start healing when the situation becomes too dangerous. Dispelling the shield, followed by Earth Shock can effectively prevent this * Be wary of smart priests that feign a heal by first casting some other spell (which a shaman might shock out of a reflex). Warlock * Use 2H weapon. * Purge. Warlocks will often buff themselves with Demon Armor, which can be dispelled. * Dropping a Grounding Totem is also a good idea. * Warlocks will try to Fear you so drop a Tremor Totem. Even if you're outside it's range, it's good to have. * Dont worry about direct damage just make sure you keep the DoTs off of you. * Get into Melee range and go straight for the warlock (ignore the pet). Mage * Use 2H weapon. * Purge! Mages will have Frost Armor and Arcane Intellect cast on themselves as a standard buff. * Drop a Grounding Totem when the "hands light up" (which usually is the first thing you will see happen in case of a Fire Mage). * Earth Shock whenever you see them channeling a spell. * Try to figure out what type of Mage you're fighting quickly, and drop the appropriate totem - Frost Resistance Totem for Frost Mages, Fire Resistance Totem for Fire Mages. If they're an Arcane Mage...hope you've got some Arcane resistance built into your armor. * A Mage may try to Polymorph you. Don't panic though - you'll revert to your normal self if you take any damage, and while you're sheeped you'll quickly regain your health and mana. * Bash them on the head really hard. Druid * Purge! * The druid is a weird class to battle. They can switch forms quite rapidly during combat, switching from a caster class to a warrior class, to a rogue class. The key adaptation is to treat every form as the associated class (ie. Cat Form as a rogue, Bear Form as a warrior and Druid form as a caster). * Should the druid start to run in Travel Form, slow him down with Frost Shock and Earthbind Totems. * Get in their face early, make them use there mana for healing. * Dont waste your mana! Most of your mana in this battle should be for healing yourself and keeping the druid as close as possible. Hunter * Use 1H weapon and shield. * Ignore the pet. * A hunter is most effective from a distance. Get into melee range and lay on the hurt in whatever way you prefer. * Frost Shock and Earthbind will keep them in melee range. * Cure Poison should be hotkeyed. Don't bother with the totem. (During this fight you will be moving a lot, and constantly going outside of the totems range.) * If you suspect that they may be using the Freeze trap, drop a Frost-Resist totem first. You could drop a Fire-Resist for the Fire trap, but it's not really that much of a problem. * Earth Shock and Flame Shock should probably be avoided, Frost Shock is much more effective. * His damage over time (especially the manaburn thing) are poisons. Remove them as soon as possible. * If you need to heal, be sure you're in melee range first. Slow him with Frost Shock and try to get in a quick heal with Lesser Healing Wave. Even if the pet is on your back you should be able to heal no problem with Lesser Healing Wave. Regular Healing Wave will give them too much time. (Hopefully you have the talents that improve your Lesser Healing Wave) * It's much better however if you kill him before you have to heal. Hunters are one of the few classes it's good to use almost all your mana on trying for a quick kill. * The longer the fight, the harder it gets. Paladin * Use 1H and shield. 2H is a debatable choice, but 1H and shield is usually better. * Flametongue weapon is a viable alternative to windfury. If you opt for 2H weaon, choose windfury because a lucky hit could kill the paladin while he still has mana. * Purge! (Again and again when you see him cast a seal.) * Dont waste your mana! (This is by far the most important) * Keep the Paladin Slowed with Frost Shock, as you would a warrior. * Kite and harrass until half of YOUR mana is gone. You will need the rest for healing. * Remember that Paladin's can heal two to three times during the battle while you watch helplessly. During that time heal yourself (if he heals under his magic shield, use bandage). * This battle may last a while. Remember to let your naturally high spirit do it's job. Also remember that you CAN'T gain more mana while your casting spells. So make sure you have some time between your casts. Mana regeneration only starts 5 seconds after your last cast. * Most of the time whoever runs out of mana first, loses. The best thing you can do is get them to use their mana. * One of their shields is impossible to purge, the other can be purged. Shaman * You're only going to be fighting shamans in friendly duels, so don't worry about it too much. * It often comes down to who has Nature's Swiftness or not, and who's the better/luckier player. * If you are at least partially enhancement-specced, use your mana only for removing lightning shield from the other player, and to heal yourself. If not, you're probably screwed. =How to Help A...= Rogue *Find out if they're using Poisons, Counterweights, or Sharpening Stones. If you drop a weapon-effect totem, (Flametongue, Windfury, etc.) it will override whatever effects they have on their Main Hand weapon, but not the Off-Hand. *Grace of Air totem is great for Rogues, because it gives them even more agility. Warrior * Strength of Earth and Windfury Totem are great for warriors. Helps then do more damage and take more damage. * Warriors have a ton of HP, so they need big heals. It's best to primarily use Healing Wave on Warriors, unless they're dying fast and you're taking damage. Then use a whole lot of Lesser Healing Wave. Remember: they don't have negative health points, so even a huge Healing Wave is worthless if they're dead. * Try not to use Earth Shock until the end of a battle (after the Warrior has built up a lot of aggro), unless you're using it to disrupt casters. It causes a ton of aggro and will peel mobs off the warrior. Alternate between Flame Shock and Frost Shock - Flame Shock is the most mana-efficient, whereas you use Frost Shock while Flame Shock's DOT is still going. Priest * Keep your eyes locked on the Priest's HP and Mana bars. They often become so engrossed in keeping others alive that they forget to heal themselves. * If you see their mana bar getting too low, it's time to kick YOUR healing into high gear. Try not to blow your mana early in the battle! * Dropping a Healing totem can help make a priest's job a lot easier by filling in the piddly amounts of damage that are done by AOEs and stuff. * Just like with Warlocks, if you see a mob on a Priest, Earth Shock them to get them off! Warlock * Warlocks are suicide machines. Keep them alive! * If you see a mob on a Warlock (or any caster), Earth Shock will likely get them to attack you instead - better that they're attacking the Mail-user than the Cloth-user. Then find a way to get the Warrior's attention. Mage * Mages can so a lot of damage with their spells, which may mobs onto them. Use Earth Shock to draw those mobs off the Mage, then let the Warrior pull them off of you. * Mages may appreciate having a Mana Spring Totem nearby. Druid The farther into the game you get the more Druids seem to become healers, so act as though they are the priest. If you see their mana going low, help out with healing. They may be able to take any position in the party however, they are not as good at it. They can not fade like a priest can so Earth shock will be a friend to a Healing Druid. Hunter * Hunters are really the only class that you usually don't have to worry about healing much, or keeping aggro off. They can Feign Death, giving them time to heal themselves with bandages or whatever they have. * Remember, with a Hunter, there's another member of your party you need to keep track of, and you don't get a hotkey and tab for them: the pet! So, it's a good idea to set up a macro button to target their pet (/target Petname), so you can see if they need healing or not. Also, by pressing "V" (by default), it'll put a health bar above the pet (if you have that option turned on in the Interface settings), which makes it a lot easier to track. * Grace of Air Totem helps Hunters do more damage and last longer. Enough said. Paladin * HELP a Paladin? HA HA HA! Well, if you ever somehow manage to group with a pally... * Windfury totem. At least some dps... Good luck trying to get a pally in your group! ;P Shaman * Organize with them beforehand to make sure you're not dropping the same totems they are, since the effects don't stack. * With 2 shamans in a group, you could have Strength of Earth and Stoneskin, Grace of Air and Windfury Totem, Healing Spring and Mana Spring, etc. Your party will be MUCH harder to kill. Category:Shamans Category:Tactics Category:Stubs